GWS's Buntine punctures lung, breaks rib

Rob Forsaith

Greater Western Sydney emerged as the biggest losers of the weekend's AFL pre-season action, with defender Matt Buntine to miss up to eight weeks with a punctured lung and broken rib.

The news was better for Hawthorn's Paul Puopolo, who landed awkwardly after a marking contest against Gold Coast and went to ground clutching his knee painfully.

Hawks football manager Mark Evans says Puopolo has bone bruising and could play in round one of the premiership season.

"I'm not sure about the severity of the bone bruising but that will really be determined by how it settles down," Evans told Melbourne radio station SEN.

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"Sometimes you can play straight away and sometimes you might need to miss a few weeks, so we'll see how that goes over the next couple of weeks."

GWS posted a shock win over local rivals Sydney in Sunday's pre-season triple-header at Blacktown, but Buntine was rushed to hospital after a crunching collision with Carlton forward Levi Casboult in their earlier match.

The 2011 No.5 draft pick needed his lung drained after it copped the full brunt of Casboult's knee.

Despite the severity of the injury, the AFL's match review panel deemed Casboult had no case to answer for.

"(Casboult is) grabbing for the ball as he makes contact with his opponent. It was the view of the panel that Casboult was making a realistic attempt to gather the ball and the contact was accidental," the league said in a statement.

GWS coach Kevin Sheedy suggested his club would take a cautious approach with Buntine's recovery.

"We're not into the game of rushing these sorts of players back. We'll just bring in another kid," Sheedy said on Sunday.

"He's a pretty special sort of guy. He's going to be there for a long time and he reminds me a bit of Andrew McKay, who used to play at Carlton."